Parking plan foes look to Reds fans for help

Petition drive under way to place measure before voters

Big crowds gathered for Opening Day and the Findlay Market parade created a perfect opportunity for opponents of Cincinnati's parking plan.

Activists gathered signatures for a petition drive to place the measure before voters in November.

Opponents said they already had more than 10,000 signatures, and they need 8,522 valid signatures by the end of the week.

Although downtown streets were crowded with revelers, not all of them were residents of Cincinnati.

Opponents of the city's plan to lease city-owned parking lots and meters to a private company set up signs on 10-foot poles to attract like-minded people, but not all of them met the official requirments.

"Lo and behold, they sign it and they actually live in West Chester," said Pete Witte, of Price Hill. "I think they just, we don't need your mindset to be, 'You live in the city of Cincinnati,' we need you literally to be a registered voter in the city of Cincinnati."

Cincinnati's mayor and city manager said they'll be forced to lay off police officers and firefighters if the plan doesn't go through.